SMC

Beating BYU was an attention getter… beating SMC in the same week would be sweet (not to mention make the WCC very interesting for Bronco fans) I’ve seen a good bit of SMC this year and they are a great unit on both ends of the floor. Not even close to the talent of the Zags, but they really play well together. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see them make it to the sweet 16. Their defense impresses me. The weak spot is guard quickness. I like both Rahon and Naar, but they both have trouble with speedy guards. Hauser, JB, and Feagin aren’t lightning quick, but they are fast enough to cause problems for SMC. If they drain 14 3’s again they’ll have a chance at the upset. $100 to anyone who gets the correct score. I’d love to see it happen, but I’ve got to go with SMC 73 SCU 60

If we can play a full 40 and have the Gaels sweating it out, that would be a success I think. It’s not a probable win, but not impossible. Betting my heart, per usual: 71-69 SCU with Jared getting his third buzzer beater versus SMC

Also, has ESPN ever come to the Leavey Center for two consecutive games, neither of which involves the Zags? Pretty neat, in my opinion. More Bronco coverage is always better.

Someone needs to get the message to the students that the curtain thing needs to be at or near court level. Way too high and outside the field of vision to bother the shooter right now. Lining it up so it’s right below the basket in the shooter’s field of vision seems ideal.

76-67 SMC
Similar challenge as GU and BYU, they have a big advantage in the post. Landale can score inside as well as knock down 3’s, a lot to ask of Ndumanya and Jadersten to defend him all over the court. Imagine Brownridge will be guarding Hermanson who has been shooting it well and has a good 3″+ height advantage on Brownridge.
Agree w/ Betterbroncos, our guards, especially KJ, have a quickness advantage vs. their guards….need to capitalize on that.

If they can slow down Mika, they can slow down Landale. Difference is that SMC is a lot better coached and won’t beat themselves. This game could be almost like looking in a mirror. Similar styles, SCU just doesn’t really have a post scorer.

Also SMC has a bunch of illegally recruited (probably) Australians.

Btw Landale only has 3 made 3’s. I wouldn’t worry too much about that aspect of his game. Everyone other than him and Pineau will shoot it though. Pretty much all of their bench guys that play take more than half their shots from 3, as does Fitzner. Hermanson about 50/50. Naar and Rahon are more like guys that will shoot the 3 — not guys for which that’s a main focus of their game. they both make about 1 a game.

I wonder if Wardlow can guard Hermanson…of course then you’re playing 4 on 5 on offense…

Not sure we ‘slowed down Mika’….he had 19pts the 1st game, 22pts on Thurs., shot 7-16 from the field both games. The difference in cutting down their scoring on Thurs. was we were successful in slowing down the overall pace of play that benefitted us…BYU likes to play fast, early offense. Also, BYU didn’t get as much production from other post players besides Mika (1st game 20pts from Childs, Ayetes, et al; 2nd game only 8 pts). And 1st game various guards chipped in for BYU w/ good games; not so in 2nd game….Hawes and Emery each shot 1-6 from 3. BYU also help us out with some bad TO’s.

SMC….

You’re right on Landale’s 3’s, I was confusing him w/ Fitzner. Regardless, Landale does have a perimeter game, can face the basket and score from 15-17. And he has a much different style than Mika…Mika is a better athlete, very active and aggressive, does most of his damage inside 5 ft., draws lots of contact and goes to line a lot. Landale is a little more finesse with a range of good post moves and ability to face the basket.

Re: SMC’s 3pt shooting….attempts/game for Rahon, Naar and Fitzner have all dropped significantly this season and Naar’s scoring has dropped about 4pts. Not sure what to make of that. I imagine w/ Landale’s emergence and huge jump in production they’ve played inside/out through Landale more this season and guard scoring opportunities have dropped. Regardless, Rahon, Naar both are capable of shooting it well from 3 so can’t ignore either of them.

Wardlow on Hermanson is certainly a better matchup than with any of our other guards. Best defender amongst our guards and longer and a better athlete than Brownridge or Hauser. Would have been nice to have a healthy Pugh for this game….matches up well with Hermanson.

Mika did basically nothing in the first 16 minutes of the game, while Santa Clara was taking a lead and gaining confidence. He got his points in the last 4 min of the first half but still missed a lot of shots. That plus the turnovers gave Santa Clara a strong foothold in the game.

BYU went to Mika early in the 2nd half and got within 4 again. At this point he had 13 points, all but 2 in about the last 6 minutes of game time. Then they got him slowed down and went on a 10-3 run that put the game firmly in control. Then when he came in after the double foul, he didnt’ score for about 5 minutes.

Considering SCU didn’t double him, that seems really good.

It’ll be the same deal with Landale, because aggressively doubling against SMC is basically hoping they miss shots they would expect to make, because as you said, you can’t leave any of their position 1-4 guys alone.

Playing Wardlow on Hermanson means playing Brownridge on Fitzner (I don’t think you can do this when their other Aussie big is out there with Landale — I forget his name), or sitting 1 of the big 3 (which might be a way to get them 2 min of rest each or so).

Interesting puzzle. Will be equally interesting to see how Sendek and staff approach it.

I wasn’t suggesting or hoping that we play a 4 guard lineup w/ Wardlow on Hermanson and Brownridge on Fitzner…just suggesting Wardlow’s capable and best suited to guard Hermanson when he subs for one of the guards. Also, Pineau is a former starter and often plays more than Fitzner, he’s more of an interior player and plays pretty physical and would be an even greater mismatch issue for Wardlow, Brownridge (or Healy) if we try the 4 guard lineup.

You may not have been, but I was. 🙂 Maybe not in total, but at times. There’s also the question of whether you can sacrifice Kratch. I guess you have to start with your regular 5 and see whether he’s making 3s, but there may need to be some pretty quick adjustments.

I’m not sure Brownridge can handle Hermanson, but Fitzner isn’t as active. And yes, it’s Pineau I was thinking of.

SMC basically does two things — high screen, and spotting up when the ball is in low post. Their offense really gets started when a big has the ball in the post. You want to make Rahon or Naar keep it. They can shoot it, but that’s not really what they want to do at that point. Landale is a much better passer than Pineau. Rahon, Naar and Landale have an almost unbelievable 116 of their 141 assists in the league. (Hermanson has 5, btw) So everyone else, when they get it, is pretty looking to either shoot, re-enter to the post, or reset. I wonder if playing some token pressure to give them fewer seconds to run their stuff and try to get that big uncovered would help. They don’t get to the line that much, so you can get up and ball pressure and they’re probably not going to get by that much.

On the other side, they’ll let you run your offense. They don’t force many turnovers. They want to stay in front and make you make tough shots, and limit you to one shot which they do better than anyone in the country. They don’t play tempo though, so if you want to crash with a guard, you probably can.

i felt like SCU had every chance against BYU. This one I think they could get it right and have a chance, or just have no answers for them on offense. But SMC isn’t just going to athletically overwhelm. Bennett is used to being able to outcoach most teams, but he’s up against his match in this one.

We usually have one decent game against these guys, irrespective of the final score. A former Fed Reserve Chair warned about irrational exuberance, and the markets ignored him. Me too…SMC repeats the follies of their UT Arlington loss ( about 30% from the field, including Hermanson, Rahon, and Naar), and the Broncs continue back-to-back 3 pt assaults. 72-65 SCU.

BB – Don’t know if you knew this already, but I know you’re no Stege fan. KSCU does it’s own call these days with (I think) a student doing the play-by-play. He’s quite good too. Anyways, it’s a listening option w/no Stege that you could maybe paid with a muted video if you wanted.

Not much ball movement, especially with Hauser out made it tough for JB tonight. Kratch and Low are good players, Herb is a very good coach, so what is not to understand? What do you like about their play?

Unreal how it keeps happening. He was really lazy cutting off the downscreen. The one time he cut hard like he wanted the ball he got separation and hit the 3 to cut it to 5. Announcers remarked about how hard he worked to get free. It was notable because he didn’t do it nearly often enough otherwise. Forced shots, sometimes late in the clock, other times not. Was part of the problem on bad defense on standstill shooters, though he was far from alone on that (if you’re not going to double, then stick to your damn man! You don’t even really need to see the ball at that point). Really subpar performance.

A night where you get a bonus 9 out of Ndumanya you should be scoring more than 59. Wardlow taking 4 threes is just criminal.